Monday, August 22, 2016

Rio Olympics and The Lochte Case

How old is Ryan Lochte?  I hear he’s thirty-two.  That is, he’s in his early thirties.  Thirties!  And this is his behavior?

The incident with Ryan Lochte in Rio made me think of other times when other athletes and/or entertainment celebrities of various types (singers, actors, or musicians, for example) have gotten into trouble.

At quick glance, an immediate observation that I’d make, as an outsider looking in on these various “another celebrity in trouble” incidents, is the common denominator of the childishness and immaturity of the initial misbehavior that triggers the media spotlight on them, questioning their judgment and character.

I especially find it interesting that some celebrities reactively choose to defy the assumption that, because they are celebrities, they are expected to be good role models.  Their defiant attitude goes something like this: “I didn’t ask to be a role model.  I don’t want to be a role model.  And I don’t have to be a role model to anyone.  So, don’t lay that burden on me!”

Back to Ryan Lochte, I have no idea what his attitude is, respecting the public expectation that he should be a good role model as an Olympic star athlete.  He may accept this, he may not; I don’t know.  What I DO know is that, celebrity or not, his age (32) in and of itself demands that he should be a good role model.  In short, he’s all grown up.  He’s a man.  He’s well beyond his adolescent years.  As a full fledge adult, he should act like one.

Don’t get me wrong; even adults need to let their hair down, have fun, and be a kid again, so to speak.  I get it.  There’s a kid in all of us, or there should be—and that’s a good thing.  We should all stay young at heart.

But—okay, at this point I realize that I am risking the chance of sounding like an old fuddy-duddy—it seems to me that our society is trending toward extending adolescence well beyond the teen years, into the twenties, and even into the thirties.  What used to be considered adolescent antics, in thinking and behavior, has now become the norm for twenty and thirty something year-olds!  Or is it just me?  Please don’t tell me that I’m just an old stick-in-the-mud.

Recently, my three-year-old granddaughter has picked up on the difference between being a “grown-up” and being a “kid.”  So, she made the following profound observation: “Mommy is a ‘grown-up,’ so is Daddy.  Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop [that would be me] are ‘grown-ups’ too; but I’m just a kid.”  That’s my granddaughter for you!  She tends to make life observations like that.

What she didn’t say, yet I know she’s thinking and observing, is that kids don’t act like grown-ups and grown-ups don’t act like kids; they’re different.  And she most certainly instinctively understands what that “difference” is; it goes something like this: “grown-ups are responsible for us kids, they show us the way, teach us, and protect us; I am learning how to be a person by watching the grown-ups around me.”

An adult that normatively functions as an adolescent is suffering from arrested development, is emotionally, psychologically, and/or mentally stunted.  Sure, most if not all of us adults may regress from time to time, have moments when we react or behave immaturely.  Still, few adults would like to be viewed as childish and immature in the long run.

Yet it seems that that’s where so many of our celebrities are—in arrested development.  I admit, this is just an impression, not probably true in actual percentages or numbers.  Still, there seems to be enough adolescent acting celebrities out there that the impression is there!  Men and women in their twenties, and sometimes even well into their thirties, that seem to have remained in permanent adolescent mode, given the immaturity of their personal and/or social behavior as highlighted in newsreels.

I have to ask: Why is that?

Is it possible that we’ve so glamorized youth, coupled with the assumed freedom to “do to as I very well damn please,” that we no longer value or even understand actual wisdom and maturity?  In short, are we raising a generation of young people that no longer view the aging/maturing process as a good thing?  Aging is bad!  And, if aging is bad, so is the wisdom and maturity that goes along with it.  Message: Don’t grow up!  Stay young.  Consequence: remain an adolescent in your thinking, attitude, and behavior.  Apparently arrested development is a good thing these days.

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